Cant play a highline for highline sake. The amount of times our defenders have had to sprint back because of a simple through ball means the positioning and tactics ahead of the ball are off axis.
We are not the only team in the league whose centre half's push high up the pitch. Woolwich, Liverpool, Man City all do it. But we get played through far more often and concede much more goals.
We concede way too many goals to be able to get to 80 points.
Our defensive shape sucks. Like to the point where I wonder what our defensive coaches are doing. We rely so heavily on Van de Ven’s recovery runs and Vicario’s shot stopping and have all season. When we don’t have those we have one of the worst defences in the league - 13th for xG against.
Other teams play high lines but they don’t have that space inside the fullback. Teams knock it in to those channels and there are gaping holes to find. Against Fulham it was pathetic, so many occasions where they had players in acres of space.
There’s lots to like about what Ange has done but the defensive shape needs work and it’s not about naivety or w/e. You can look at the midfield for it as well as far too many times where the defence are exposed and left with 1v1 duels.
That’s the next step I guess - as all the current top three have very strong defences. Liverpool/City especially always put up very strong numbers for expected goals against. They don’t just allow free shots on their goal at all.